Gathered here, we sense the Sacred around us.
May we be awakened again to:
the mysteries that humble us,
the realities that orient us,
the beauty that informs us,
the fellowship that sustains us,
and the creativity that heightens and deepens our living,
that we may give ourselves in honesty and openness to the larger life before us.
Opening Words
Life! God calls us to life!
Life in its fulness, life in its beauty, life!
For the bread that fills our hearts and souls
We praise you, O God!
For the love that gives life beyond this day
We praise you, O God!
Life! God calls us to life! Alleluia!
—Melodie Long, Feasting on the Word
Opening Prayer
Out of the depths we cry to you, O God.
The load we are carrying is very heavy, threatening to crush our souls.
Though you have told us over and over again of the life you offer, though your story is one of faithfulness and grace, we get lost in our despair.
We turn on one another in our anger and frustration, hurting your precious people, the very ones we have been called to love.
Instead of living into your hope, we find ourselves being led by fear.
Desperate for an immediate solution, we forget your vision and demand our own way.
Stop us, Holy God, stop our incessant insanity, and help us find our way back to you.
Hear the prayers of our hearts……(SILENCE)
May the silence which we now share
quieten us,
touch our need,
refresh our courage,
enlarge our wonder. Amen.
Prayer Of Brokenness
God of Life, we confess that we have sought to save ourselves first.
We claim to follow Your ways, to follow Jesus, but at the first challenge to do otherwise, we become defensive, we look to shore up our possessions, and we hold on to our pride.
Forgive us for not understanding sacrifice.
Forgive us for not becoming last of all and servant of all.
Forgive us for settling for the bread that is consumed and then gone.
Call us into accountability that our own actions of self-preservation would instead become a living into Your ways of love, mercy, and justice.
Blessed are you and blessed is your Kin-Dom. Amen.
—Rev-o-lution Resources by Rev. Mindi Welton-Mitchell, http://rev-o-lution.org, (c) 2020.
Words Of Healing and Reconciliation
We have all fallen short, and we’ve all been selfish at times.
God knows this, because God knows you and loves you despite your faults and shortcomings.
God knows the complications of living bring forth our imperfect, and that’s okay.
We learn, we grow, we fail, we forgive.
Continue to grow with God, to learn to do better, strive to do good, and know that you are not alone on this journey of faith.
Forgive one another, and it shall go well with you. Amen.
Prayer For Illumination
Loving God,
open our ears to hear your word
and draw us closer to you,
that the whole world may be one with you
as you are one with us and we one in you. Amen.
Scripture Reading
II Samuel 18. 5-10; 15; 31-33
05 Meanwhile, David instructed Joab, Abishai, and Ittai, “Deal gently with young Absalom for my sake.” And all the troops heard David giving the commanders orders about Absalom.
06 The army marched out to take the field of battle against Israel; the battle was joined in the Forest of Ephraim.
07 The Israelites were routed there with a great loss of life—20,000 died.
08 The rout spread throughout the countryside, and the forest claimed more lives that day than the sword.
09 Some of David’s troops spotted Absalom fleeing on his mule. As the mule ran under the thick branches of a large oak tree, Absalom’s head was caught in its branches, while the mule ran out from under him.
10 One of the warriors who had seen what happened said to Joab, “I saw Absalom hanging from an oak tree.”
15 Then Joab’s ten armor-bearers cut him down and delivered the fatal blows.
31 Then the Cushite arrived, saying, “Sovereign ruler, I have good news. For God Most High delivered you today from all who rose up against you.”
32 David asked the Cushite, “Is young Absalom safe?” The Cushite replied, “May all the enemies of the ruler and all rebels intent on harming you have the same fate as that young man.”
33 David was deeply shaken and went up to the roof chamber over the gate and wept, crying out as he went, “My child! Absalom, my son! My child Absalom! If only I had died instead of you! Absalom, my son, my son!"
—Priests for Equality. The Inclusive Bible. Sheed & Ward.
Hebrew Bible Prayer
David waited for news...news about his son...the news was not good...the waiting seems futile.
We wait...and wait...
We wait, O God,for justice in our world like waiting for the birth of new life, and the promise waiting to be unfolded.
We wait, O God, for peace in our world like the waiting for our next meal to be served and the bread to break open, the doorway of life.
We wait, O God, with the sorrowful in our world like the waiting for dawn over the horizon after the darkest of nights.
We wait, O God, with the hungry in our world like that waiting for the rains to break across a famine plain.
We wait, O God, for love in our world like the waiting at the tomb before the stone rolls and the life is set
David waited and the news broke his heart.
We wait for the healing the mends the heart and fills all with life.
We wait in the promises of God.
We wait, O God, as you wait with us, always.
Psalmody
Psalm 130
01 Out of the depths I cry to you, O God Most High!
02 God, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
to my voice, my cries for mercy!
03 If you kept track of our sins, O God Of Hosts,
who could stand before you?
04 But with you is forgiveness,
and for this we revere you.
05 So I wait for you, O God Most High—
my soul waits,
and in your word I place my trust.
06 My soul longs for you, O God Of Hosts,
more than the watchers of the night long for the dawn,
more than the watchers of the night long for the dawn.
07 Israel, put your hope in God Most High,
for with God is abundant love
and the fullness of deliverance;
08 God will deliver Israel
from all its failings.
—Priests for Equality. The Inclusive Bible. Sheed & Ward.
Psalm Prayer
Lean in and try it.
Step forward and grab it.
Open arms and embrace it.
Unclench fists so you touch it.
Sit back and enjoy it.
Breathe deep and inhale it.
Slow down to allow it.
Lend an ear so you hear it.
Lift your eyes – you may see it.
Widen your mouth to receive it.
Taste it and see it: bread broken and gifted.
Life for the world and the Kin-Dom to come.
Scripture Reading
Ephesians 4. 25-32; 5. 1-2
25 Therefore, let’s have no more lies. Speak truthfully to each other, for we are all members of one body.
26 When you get angry, don’t let it become a sin. Don’t let the sun set on your anger,
27 or you will give an opening to the Devil.
28 You who have been stealing, stop stealing. Go to work. Do something useful with your hands, so you can have something to share with the needy.
29 Be on your guard against foul talk. Say only what will build others up at that moment. Say only what will give grace to your listeners.
30 Don’t grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
31 Get rid of all bitterness, all rage and anger, all harsh words, slander and malice of every kind.
32 In place of these, be kind to one another, compassionate and mutually forgiving, just as God has forgiven you in Christ.
01 Try, then, to imitate God as beloved children.
02 Walk in love as Christ loved us, and offered himself in sacrifice to God for us, a gift of pleasing fragrance.
—Priests for Equality. The Inclusive Bible. Sheed & Ward.
Epistle Prayer
Bread of life,
you taught us to put away bitterness and anger,
and with tenderhearted kindness
to share the fruit of our labor with the needy.
Strengthen us by your grace,
that in communion with you,
we may forgive one another
and live in love as you love us. Amen.
Scripture Reading
John 6. 35; 41-51
35 Jesus explained to them, “I am the bread of life. No one who comes to me will ever be hungry; no one who believes in me will be thirsty.
41 The Temple authorities started to grumble in protest because Jesus claimed, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.”
42 They kept saying, “Isn’t this Jesus, son of Mary and Joseph? Don’t we know his mother and father? How can he claim to have come down from heaven?”
43 “Stop your grumbling,” Jesus told them.
44 “No one can come to me unless drawn by Abba God, who sent me—and those I will raise up on the last day.
45 It is written in the prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard God’s word and has learned from itcomes to me.
46 Not that anyone has seen Abba God—only the one who is from God has seen Abba God.
47 The truth of the matter is, those who believe have eternal life.
48 I am the bread of life.
49 Your ancestors ate manna in the desert, but they died.
50 This is the bread that comes down from heaven, and if you eat it you’ll never die.
51 I myself am the living bread come down from heaven. If any eat this bread, they will live forever; the bread I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
—Priests for Equality. The Inclusive Bible. Sheed & Ward.
Gospel Prayer
This living word:
Might perplex and rebuke us...
Challenge and unnerve us...
Surprise and delight us...
Nourish and fulfil us.
Bread come from heaven, yet risen within us...
Gift to the world, yet here, right beside us.
Taste, and see...
Credo
We believe:
Not the secret of life but the bread.
Not the belief, but the loaf,
gathered from sun-drawn wheat,
ground in the suffering mill,
baked and given by real hands,
nourishing, now, in its willingness
to be taken, broken, eaten.
See its grainy skin, feel its heft,
smell its warmth.
This is not bread you think about.
This is bread you take into yourself,
that feeds your soul.
Let the Bread be that real.
—Steve Garnaas-Holmes (https://www.unfoldinglight.net)
Prayer Of Intercession
Friends in Christ,
God invites us to hold the needs of our sisters and brothers
as dear to us as our own needs.
Loving our neighbors as ourselves,
we offer our thanksgivings and our petitions
on behalf of the church and the world.
(SILENCE)
Holy One, we have indeed been waiting for a very long time it seems.
We wait for this pandemic to ease, only to be confronted by yet another wave, by divisions that seem cruel and incomprehensible, by our deep soul weariness as we struggle to adapt to it all.
Yet you remind us of the overarching story that swaddles us in comfort and hope.
You call to us in our despair and whisper to us that we are loved and cherished.
Then you pull us out of ourselves so that we can become your loving and graceful presence even in this chaotic world – especially in this chaotic world.
As we breathe in your peace that settles in our bones, we become aware of the world around us.
There is much hurt, much anger, much confusion, and we feel powerless to address it all.
This gift of prayer opens a door of hope, an awareness of the people in our lives who are hungry for healing and wholeness, of the restlessness of our own hearts, of who you are and who we are called to be.
When are overwhelmed, feeling that this is an impossible task, that our emotions are too raw, help us to wait in a sacred pause, trusting in your faithfulness.
Sing to us in our hearts of the bread that gives life to us all.
Renewed by your love, grant us courage, wisdom, and grace to live in this time, knowing that we are never alone.
In the silence we open our hearts, we lift our prayers to you……(SILENCE)
—Melodie Long (adapted—based John 6: 41-51 & Psalm 130)
Prayer Of Dedication
God of all living, we have seen your presence
in the rhythm and surprises of our years.
You have accompanied us through all that is past.
So we thank you.
We recognize your closeness in this day.
You challenge and encourage us
in each act and decision.
So we praise you.
Now we look to you
in the promises which stretch before us.
You meet us with hope and call us to freedom
to live as your new people.
So we trust you and commit ourselves again,
to live as passionate people in this place.
—MDurber
Prayer of Jesus (adapted)
Loving Presence, luminous in all creation,
most holy be your name upon our lips.
Your Kin-Dom come.
Earth yielding the perfection of the heavens.
Help us to receive our measure from the earth this day.
Forgive us when we wrong again others,
human and other than human,
as we forgive others who wrong us.
Keep us on the path of wisdom
when we are tempted to take our own path.
May it be your truth we follow,
your power we exercise,
and your radiance that shines forth in the shadows.
May this be the reality that guides our lives,
the ground from which our future will grow,
until we meet again.
Blessed are you and blessed is your just peace. Amen.
Parting Words
Let us take on this week’s life
with renewed hope and imagination.
Hold in your heart the certainty
that the spirit of life is with you always.
When our hearts are torn asunder
or when we soar with sweet joy,
we are never alone,
never apart,
from the spirit that resides within us,
that guides our lives and cherishes us always.
Take comfort.
Blessed be.
—E. A.Virago (https://www.rexaehuntprogressive.com)
Words Of Blessing
Trust God to satisfy all your hungers.
Trust the Christ who turns no one away.
Trust the Spirit who has marked you for the day of your redemption,
and be imitators of God in all that you do.
—Slemmons, Timothy Matthew. When Heaven Stands Open: Liturgical Elements for Reformed Worship. Cascade Books.
